Pandora grows share of listening and hours, holds audience in March

Market-leading Internet radio service Pandorareleased its monthly audience metrics for March today, promoting year-over-year growth in its key metrics. As always, Pandora revealed three measurements in the monthly report: Active listeners (a much-scrutinized number that indicates size of audience and allegiance to the brand), Listener hours, and Share of total U.S. radio listening.

The “Share of total U.S. radio listening” statistic is the most controversial, with radio industry advocates disputing it regularly. (It is a private calculation for which Pandora does not disclose methodology, leaving itself open to criticism.) That number has climbed steadily, and in march exceeded 9% of total U.S. radio listening for March — 9.11% exactly. The metric was 8.9% in the previous month.

Listening hours also grew month-over-month, from 1.51-billion to 1.71-billion.

In the much-scrutinized “active listeners” category, representing audience size and often used as a key indicator of business progress, Pandora held steady from February to March, at 75.3-million people who used the service more than once.

Pandora serves a registered user base of 250-million people who have signed in at least once. Registering is required to listen.